


Time Has Told

by Kavi Leighanna (kleighanna)



Series: Time Has Told [1]
Category: Castle
Genre: F/M, Kidfic, quasi babyfic, tumblr prompt fills
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-14
Updated: 2015-05-28
Packaged: 2018-01-19 02:59:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 2,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1452952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kleighanna/pseuds/Kavi%20Leighanna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Maybe Simon Doyle (6x05) hadn't been so far off in his "future" predictions.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anonymous asked - Caskett "Mm…your kid before five in the morning.”

She’s barely bedded down before the screaming starts. She buries her head in her pillow, groaning loudly. Seriously. Seriously, she’s going to kill her own kid. She just wants, like, an hour. A chance to just rest. 

"Rick," she says, nudging him. Hard. "Your turn."

He grumbles, “Mm… your kid before five in the morning.”

"No," she says, adamant. "I’ve been up with her half the night."

His eyes flutter open, trying for her to wake up at least a little bit. Usually, he’s right. She’s the one that generally needs less sleep. She works on odd schedules, and can shift seemingly at will. With the borderline insomniac tendencies and the fact that she really likes getting up before the sun, she’s generally the perfect one to get up if Ava wakes with the sun. Plus, Kate’s always loved that kind of quiet

Thing is, right now, Kate looks like shit. 

Ava’s been teething. It’s been hell. She’s a bit of a drama queen (and comes by it honestly, Kate knows) and it’s just been brutal. Plus, Kate’s back at work and Rick’s been working on a new book… The timing couldn’t have been worse. 

She sighs in thanks as Rick stumbles from bed, then curls up in his warm spot. Finally, she can get some sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter: Caskett! "I think we should have another."

It’s been a good day. A really good day. A fabulous day, really. 

She’s off today, a family day in honour of the Yankees' home opener. She loves opening day and while she’s generally reluctant when it comes to massive displays of wealth, she’s always believed that her kids should have that love of baseball her father had instilled in her. 

They’d started young with Ava, she can admit that. She’s two, after all and there’s no way she understood anything of what went on that afternoon. To top it off they’d glossed over her nap time and she’s not exactly impressed. But Kate doesn’t mind the crankiness that had been her daughter during the trip home. 

Because nothing can ruin the look on Ava’s face as she’d watched the people and the ballgame. 

She’s asleep now and Kate knows she and Rick are going to regret it when they can’t get her down later, but she doesn’t regret it now. Now she curls up in her husband’s arms, not really watching what he’s turned on. She has her mind on other things. 

"I think we should have another."

He tenses against her like she’d known he would. He’s always so surprised when she says things like that, when she makes sacrifices in her professional life for her personal life. Not that he’s ever believed she hadn’t wanted more from her life than just her job, but it’s like he still has trouble wrapping his mind around the fact that she wants this. Or maybe just that she wants it with him. 

She wouldn’t do it without him. 

"Kate."

Her smile is shy, small, but it grows as the idea does. Another one. Another one like Ava. Another one to introduce to baseball, dogpiles when they watch games on TV, teaching them to fill in scorecards and throw a ball. 

"Kate, are you sure."

"Yeah," she says. "Let’s do it, Castle. Let’s have another one."

His eyes look like Ava’s had that afternoon, shining and shocked, like he can’t quite take it all in. “Yes,” he breathes. “Kate, yes.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tumblr Prompt: Caskett finds out they're unexpectedly expecting baby number three (Allusions to "Time Will Tell", episode 6x05 perhaps?)

"You have to be kidding me," Kate breathes as she sits on the edge of her bathtub. It’s the worst cliche, because she’s sitting there with that damn white stick, looking at an answer that she knows will change her life. Well, their lives. 

God. 

"Kate?"

"Mama! Mama!"

No. Five minutes. She needs five more minutes. She needs time to absorb this, to process this. This isn’t supposed to be her life. Hell, when Doyle had told her all those years ago that she’d have three kids there’s no way she’d believed him. Even through that first pregnancy, and the second one, she’d been in denial. But this is her third, their third and God, she really has been thinking about a senatorial run and-

No. No, no, no. Because Rick will be insufferable and she cannot and will not have him ranting at her about how he’d always known, how of course, time travel is real. 

"Babe?"

She growls, drops the stick on the counter and opens the door. Who is she kidding. She can’t wait. She can feel the panic welling up in her chest and she needs him. 

"Whoa, Kate."

She gets her arms around his neck, holds on for dear life. He reacts just like she’d known he would. He gets his arms around her too, pulls her close, hugs her tight. The panic recedes, holds steady just in her blood. It’s a few more minutes before he can get her to relax. 

"I can’t buy us much more time," he tells her, smoothing her hair out of her face and tucking it behind her ears. "They’re not going to be entertained for long. We missed you today."

She lets out this sobbing laugh. She’d been sick, is the thing. Really sick and since she’d been working so hard, she and Rick had just assumed everything had caught up with her. 

"I’m not sick," she says quietly, then reaches back for that stick. She hears his breath catch - all these years and he still absolutely sucks at hiding all of his emotions - as she hands it over. 

"Kate."

She sucks in a breath. “I’m pregnant. Again.”

His mouth opens and closes a few times, that damn fish out of water that she hates because it means he doesn’t have the answer, he doesn’t have the rest of the story and this is one of those times where she can’t afford that. She needs him to have the answers because right now she feels like their plans are going up in smoke. All their careful plans about campaigns and work-life balance and he-

"Kate." He cups her face, shuffles closer until he’s crowding her. "Oh my god, Kate."

She laughs this weird, watery noise. “I’m pregnant.”

He kisses her. She needs the words, she needs him to tell her, to help her see that everything’s going to be-

"Three kids, Kate. Three." And then his eyes light up. "Three kids, the race for senator… Do you know what this means?" 

Her head falls to his shoulder with a groan, but he’s never been one to let a moment go. 

"Time travel is real.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: "So, how should we break the news that they’re going to have a new baby brother or sister?" Caskett

They wait two months. Two months of doctor’s appointments, of careful monitoring. Kate drops her coffee intake, increases the vitamins she takes in the morning. They want to be sure before they mention it.

When she passes the three month mark, Rick approaches her. 

"So, how should we break the news that they’re going to have a new baby brother or sister?"

Kate sighs. Telling Ava had been pretty easy the first time around. She’d been too young to really understand and not exactly the most demanding baby. Even now, she’s the quiet one, the one who adjusts pretty quickly to new things like babies and siblings. There have been a handful since Ava’s birth. 

But Jack. Kate’s a little worried about Jack. He’s a demanding kid, loud and a little bit obnoxious. She thinks maybe that’s a second child thing, like he’s never had to get out of the way. Ava has, of course, because babies take more attention. Ava’s good on her own and Kate knows she and Rick have had to toe that fine line between giving Jack the attention he demands and making sure they don’t forget Ava. 

Not that she could forget her little girl. 

But now there’s a new one on the way, that damn surprise of a pregnancy test. She swallows thickly. 

"I don’t know," she admits, watching Jack show Ava the right way to play with his superheroes. Well, the best a three year old can, she wagers. Ava’s patient though, she’s always been patient with Jack. 

"Ava’ll be excited," he murmurs, his hand rubbing her back. It amuses Kate because he’s rubbing at the spots that ache when she’s pregnant long before she’s even showing. "She was over the moon when Jack was born."

"She knew what was coming," Kate argues, because Lanie had given birth to Ava’s ‘cousin’ when Ava was eighteen months. Their firstborn had already experienced pregnancy, albeit from a distance. But Javier and Lanie are happy with Joey and Ryan and Jenny stopped after Grace and Jon. Jack’s never dealt with the growing stomachs, not being able to sit on someone’s lap. He’s the baby. 

"He’s going to be fine, Babe."

She hopes so, because God, she hopes to all high heaven they haven’t inadvertently raised a spoiled boy. It’s not like they picked him up every time he cried or anything, it’s just always been easier to figure out what he wants. He’s not very good at keeping the secret. 

"Ava can show him how it’s done."

Kate’s getting flashbacks now, of little Ava wrapping diapers around her dolls. She has one, Bibi, she still won’t let go of. She wonders if she’ll catch Ava and Jack in Ava’s room, very carefully changing Bibi’s diaper. Ava had done it when Jack was an infant. 

"We’ll be fine."

She looks up at him then, really looks. She can see the excitement in his eyes, the way he’s all but chomping at the bit to tell his youngest kids. (They’d called Alexis yesterday because neither of them could wait another minute and Alexis… It’s easy to explain things to Alexis). She rolls her eyes. 

"Okay, Daddy," she murmurs, popping up on her toes to kiss his cheek. "Let’s go tell them about baby number three."


	5. You need to wake up because I can’t do this without you.

“Daddy! Daddy you need to wake up. We can’t do it without you!”

“Ave, it’s early.”

“It’s always early,” his eldest answers, but there’s a note of alarm in her voice that he does not like. He pries an eye open and sure enough, despite the calm face she’s inherited from her mother, he can see his ten-year-old daughter looks, well, panicked. 

“Ave?”

She’s wringing her hands in the way he doesn’t like and he tries, he really, really tries to pay attention.

“We didn’t do it by ourselves. We know the rules. But Grams is here, so we thought it was okay.”

“Ava.”

Her shoulders slump dramatically. “I think Grams is burning down the kitchen.”

That wakes him up, sharp and fast and he all but tumbles from the bed. Kate’s side is already cold. “Where’s Mom?”

“Running.”

Of course. 

“We just wanted to do something nice for you and Mama,” Ava says as she backs out of his way. 

He gets it. He does. His deadlines and Kate’s shifts and three kids and everyone’s general insanity… The kids have always been a bit nuts about family time -  _not_  that he’s complaining, nor will he - and there hasn’t been much of it lately. 

So he stumbles into the kitchen, his brain now awake enough to register the vague smell of burning. Jack’s on a step stool at the stove, his mother near by - but by Castle’s estimation, not near enough given Jack’s proclivity for trouble - boxing in Luke and the rather sharp knife his son is wielding. 

“Mother.”

“Richard! Oh, darling go back to bed!”

“Mother. What’s burning?” 

“Hey guys look who I found in the lobby- Oh, Martha.” It’s Kate, sweaty and still beautiful, Alexis behind her. The chaos starts then, kids scrambling for Alexis and their mother in equal measure as Kate’s nose wrinkles. “Is something burning?” 

“Mama, we’re making breakfast with Grams!”

“Of course, not burning, dear. It’s just the toaster.”

“Mama, you’re gross!”

Castle sighs, his shoulders slumping as he exchanges a look with his wife and says, “I’m going back to bed.”

(Alexis helps the little ones straighten out breakfast and they all complement Martha on the endeavour for ego’s sake. It’s nice, really, the whole family together for more than five minutes and he drinks it in, finally awake and coffee in hand, his wife at his elbow. Staring across the table at all four - _four_  - of his kids.

His family.)


End file.
